


stardust to remember you by

by welcometothehumanrace



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Balmeran!Hunk, Galra Keith (Voltron), Galra Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Olkari!Pidge, idk what im doing, what is this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 21:43:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11768979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometothehumanrace/pseuds/welcometothehumanrace
Summary: And yes, he was confused, freaking out, and having a minor existential crisis, but a large part of Lance was also giving major props to the alien for the dramatic flair.He could respect that.-In which Keith is a Paladin of Voltron, Lance is a simple Earth boy, and yet their paths still manage to cross.





	stardust to remember you by

**Author's Note:**

> Or the AU where everyone’s an alien but Lance lol.
> 
> but forreal pls like this, i thought of it at 4 am with no power and 13% left on my latptop
> 
> also pls send help

There were certain things Lance expected to happen on Fridays.

Fridays were flight simulator days, which meant he expected Iverson to chew him out and pointedly ignore the rest of his crew.

They were also open gym days, which meant he could swim laps to his heart’s content and was not forced to do any running or weightlifting or any other gross workouts.

They were, best of all, the days he got to see his older sister Camila since she was the only other one in his family living out in Arizona.

So, while Fridays had their ups and downs, they were predictable and always had a happy ending—which Lance was totally down with.

Which is why when he was climbing onto the roof to sneak out for the umpteenth time past curfew and saw a giant, white castle coming down from the sky, it was unexpected to say the least.

It was fucking bat-shit crazy to say in Lance-terms.

Like, he’d had to repeatedly blink and pinch himself to make sure he was not dreaming and even then, he was still suspicious because things like this didn’t happen. And not just to him. Or in the general vicinity. Things like this didn’t happen at all. Whatsoever.

But as other officers came out to gawk, Lance got the distinct feeling that this was very real.

Added to the fact that this castle decided that right next to the Garrison was the best spot for it to land, Lance had a sinking feeling that his day wasn’t going to end with seeing his sister.

-

Almost immediately, alarms started going off and the cadets were all being ordered to stay in their room.

Which was complete bullshit because _come on._ Wasn’t this what they were all here training at the _Galaxy_ Garrison for? The chance to represent Earth in space expeditions to the most badass proportions?

And like maybe that’s not what the brochure had said, but it had totally been all over the subtext.

But Lance knew there was no way in hell he was going to be taking the direct path to the action. He saw officers heading to the dorm buildings, stationed at all the exits to stop any overly curious cadets who decided to ignore the orders.

Technically that didn’t include Lance. Orders were to stay in their dorms, they said nothing about those few (or singular) cadets who were out of their dorms past curfew.

But with his building surrounded by officers, there was no way he was going to be able to sneak down the building. Which meant he was effectively stuck.

Luckily, his building was right next to where the castle had landed (like almost alarmingly close, a few feet more and they might’ve actually made contact with the structure), so he had an amazing view of everything that was going on.

Surrounding the giant ship were all the graduated pilots, engineers, and communications officers the Garrison had, and then some. Some on ground with guns and others in large military vehicles strapped with weapons. There didn’t seem to be a lot of coordination with all the commanding officers shouting over each other and no one seemed willing to get any closer than 10 yards from the ship itself, but Lance had to give them props for getting so many people out so quickly.

All the shouting came to an abrupt stop when a door appeared, seemingly out of nowhere on the smooth ship, and a ramp began extending. Most of the ground soldiers looked scared shitless (not that Lance was mocking them because he was shaking pretty hard at this point) while a few looked back at the commanding officers for orders, but they looked too shocked to say anything.

The door then slid open, and revealed a figure in a mostly white suit, with a helmet to match. Their shape looked human, but Lance wouldn’t discount the possibility of them having 1000 eye balls or being covered green, scaly skin. And as they made their way down the ramp with a grace he’d never seen anyone in his life possess, he began to further doubt the possibility of it being anything but an alien.

Once they reached the bottom of the ramp, they lifted their hands slowly before going to their helmet and lifting it to reveal…a beautiful woman.

A beautiful Earth women?

(And yes, he was confused, freaking out, and having a minor existential crisis, but a large part of Lance was giving major props to the alien for the dramatic flair. He could respect that.)

Maybe Lance couldn’t see some details due to his distance from the ship and the limited light that came with night, but she looked undeniably human. Sure, her white hair didn’t seem to match her age, but that was hardly reason enough to assume she was an alien. Once at the bottom of the ramp, she raised her hands in a pacifying gesture.

“Hello beings of Earth,” and how was she speaking so loudly that Lance could hear her from the top of his building? And why did she have an Australian accent? Or was it British? Fuck it, why did she have an accent that sounded like it came from Earth? “I am Princess Allura of Altea and we wish you no harm and hope only for only peace between us.”

And okay the princess ( _holy shit_ an actual princess) might’ve intended to sound placating, but that really sounded like the beginning of every other alien invasion movie Lance had ever seen.

And he’d seen a lot.

It seemed like one of the people in charge agreed, and a man shouldered his way to the top of one of the many vehicle surrounding him. He had a megaphone with him, and Lance would bet his entire Selena collection that him standing on the military truck was meant to make up for the fact he couldn’t talk as loud as the mysterious alien.

“Miss,” and Lance flinched at the intentional use of the wrong title. “I’m Colonel Smith and I’m the highest-ranking field officer on this facility. You say you mean no harm, but then what are your intentions. How did you find us? And you said we. Who else is with you?”

The princess paused, seeming to take all the questions in. She didn’t seem pulsed at all the mass of weapons aimed at her, or the hostile glare the colonel was sending her.

“Most of the answers to those questions would perhaps be better discussed in private,” she responded slowly, and holy shit was the colonels face red. “However, I can now introduce you to the rest of my team.”

Lifting her helmet to her face, she spoke quietly and quickly into it.

“Hey!” Colonel Smith called out, sounding both scared and angry. “What are you saying to that helmet? I will not allow—”

Suddenly the sound of a larger door opening sounded throughout the dessert, though Lance couldn’t see anything happening from the side of the castle facing him. He wasn’t left wondering for long though because all of a sudden there were smaller ships flying from the back of the castle to surround the princess.

Soldiers began scrambling back, vehicles reversed, and there was just general chaos but Lance didn’t pay that too much attention. Mostly because he was staring at the _giant fucking color coded robotic cats_ that were surrounding the princess.

What?

How?

What?!?

Rolling onto his back, Lance to a break from the scene because this was just a little too much for him. Like crossed the line from cheesy alien movie to straight up insanity.

Pressing his palms against his eyes, he tried counting to 20, but he was interrupted by a voice much louder than the princess’ or colonel’s voice.

“People of Earth,” and okay, they really needed to come up with something other than that to say if they didn’t want them to freak out. Lance rolled back over, and realized with a start that the voice was coming from one of the cats. The black one. Great. The flying ships could talk now, fan-fucking-tastic. “We truly are not here to harm. We simply seek something of ours and will be on our way.”

Something of theirs? What could Earth have that they could want?

Holy shit, were the crazy, conspiracy theorists right? Did an alien ship really crash somewhere in this dessert in the 60’s? Are there lizard people living among them that they want to now collect? _Dios_ , did the government convince aliens to put the flag on the moon in exchange for something?

Lance suddenly felt a tingle in the back of his mind, and looked up in time to meet a pair of giant glowing eyes looking at him before he very gracefully passed out.

-

_Space RVs._

_White-haired woman._

_Rainbow cats._

_Yellow eyes._

Lance groaned as a sharp pain exploded from the back of his head. He scrunched his eyes, only to register they were still closed. Forcing them open, he hissed at the light before slowly sitting up on his elbows and recognizing he was in the Garrison infirmary.

A dream. It had all been a concussion induced dream. A very vivid, and honestly pretty alarming dream, but a dream none the less.

He heard arguing coming from outside his room, and scowled when he recognized Iverson’s voice. With his luck, he fell and hit his head while trying to sneak out and Iverson would chew him out for an hour before giving him detention for wasting the infirmary’s resources for his foolishness. Laying back down, he closed his eyes again.

Maybe he could fake sleeping until Iverson passed, and then sneak back to his dorm.

That was idea was promptly shot out the window when the door to the room slammed open, causing Lance to jolt up on the bed. As he expected there was Iverson, looking angry as ever, along with Colonel Smith (and why he was there was a mystery to Lance for a solid 2 seconds), and the woman from his dream.

The woman from his dream!

The princess!

It wasn’t a dream?!

“You have no right to be in here,” Iverson growled at the princess, and Lance had never heard him so angry, which was saying something.

“According to your colonel I have every right,” she replied coolly, before her eyes flickered over to where Lance was sitting, mouth wide open. “Oh my, I do apologize for the screaming. Hello there.”

And yeah, the accent thing was a little weird, but this woman was gorgeous. Like ethereal goddess gorgeous. There was no way her eyes could be that blue, and hair that perfect, and was that pink sitting under her eyes? So, Lance really couldn’t be blamed for the high-pitched noise that escaped him in response to her. Plus, she was an actual alien, if his memory and her now visible pointed ears served him correctly.

“McClain!” Iverson snapped, and Lance would like to say that he didn’t attempt to snap to attention while sitting down, but he’d be lying. “Want to tell me what you thought you were doing when you hid on the roof of your building when there were orders to stay in your room?”

“Well I wasn’t actually in my room when the orders were given, so technically—”

“Commander,” interrupted Colonel Smith, “I think we, including cadet McClain, have much bigger issues than why he was disobeying orders.”

“An alien invasion is no excuse to be disregarding orders.”

“I think we can make an exception to this case, Commander.”

As the two argued, the princess made her way over to Lance, eye glittering in a way that was both made Lance both mesmerized and wary.

“Hello, I’m afraid I feel rather rude not introduction myself. I am Princess Allura of Altea,” she said, and that rung a few bells in Lance’s head. “May I ask you name?”

Before Lance could speak—because a literal princess, alien or not, was asking him for his name and he wasn’t about to deny her that—Iverson noticed the princess’s, or Allura’s, question.

“You have no business knowing his name,” Iverson butted in, and Lance had heard him mad before, but now he sounded almost protective. “Despite what Colonel Smith says, this cadet is under my direct supervision and I will not let some being come in and start demanding him over.”

“Demanding me over?”

All heads snapped to where Lance had nearly shouted his question, eyes wide.

“Cadet McClain,” Colonel Smith responded, looking troubled. “There seems to be some questions that our…visitors have for you.”

“It’s not as if we want to interrogate the boy,” Princess Allura snapped. “We simply need to take him to where the blue lion is located to ensure that we’re correct in our assumption he’s the one we’ve been looking for.”

“That doesn’t _sound_ very simple to me,” Lance interjected, but he was quickly ignored.

“If you think we’re going to hand over one of our cadets like nothing, you’ve got another thing coming—no matter how royal you claim to be!”

“Hand me over for what?”

“I think what my Commander is saying is that is there must be another way for you to check if our cadet really is who you’re looking for?”

“Check if I’m who?”

“Like I’ve been saying, there’s no time! There’s rumor that the Galra may already be headed to Earth for the blue lion so we must ensure we get it first—”

“Who’s coming to Earth?”

“How many time do we have to say we don’t know anything about this Galra—”

“Um!” Lance shouted, and while that wasn’t the strongest word to use, it got the job done. Everyone in the room silenced, attention back on Lance to see what he had to say. Great.

“So, like,” and what an amazing start. “Does anyone feel like filling me in here? Because I’m pretty sure the headache I have right now has less to do with the concussion and more to do with my confusion.”

The three exchanged looks, and then Colonel Smith motioned to Allura while Iverson scowled. Making her way back over to him, she sat primly on the seat by his bed before meeting his eyes.

“Admittedly, this is most likely going to be a bit overwhelming,” she started with a sheepish smile, and Lance couldn’t help but smile back to help put her at ease. Sure, he was going out of his mind, but that didn’t mean she had to too. “Me and my team are fighting against the Galra Empire, the biggest threat to the universe ever known. We have reason to believe that you’re meant to join us in the fight.”

“Wait join you?” Lance interrupted, but he figured he better start early. He was pretty sure he was going to be stopping her for questions after every other sentence. “What exactly do you mean by join you?”

“Well,” she drew out, and Lance felt his eyebrows raise. “This is one of the less believable parts if you’re not already familiar with the legend. However, we think you are the one meant to pilot the blue lion and help us to finally form Voltron.”

Lance started nodding his head slowly, until he began to shake his head, his eyes squinting.

“I know it’s a lot to take in—”

“No, it’d be a lot to take in if I knew what the heck you were talking about,” Lance said, eyes still narrowed in confusion. “Do you mean, like, I ride a blue lion into battle? What makes me qualified to do that?”

Allura’s eyebrows shot up, before she started laughing. It was such a contagious laugh and Lance definitely would’ve joined in if he wasn’t so confused.

“No, no,” she replied, smile mirthful and eyes full of hope. “It’s a space craft. It just happens to be blue and in the shape of a—”

“The space cats!” Lance exploded, hands going to his heads. How could he forget the giant mechanical space cats! “The ones that can talk!”

“Ah, I do believe you know what I’m referring to now, due to your spying on the roof,” and Lance had the good grace to look a little guilty at that. “But I assure you they don’t talk. At least not in the way you intend. The voice you heard was its pilot. The same kind of pilot I believe you can be for the blue lion.”

And honestly, this conversation was giving him more question than answers. What was a Voltron? Who was this pilot, and were there others in the other robot cats (er, lions)? Where were they from? Why had they come to Earth?

But there was one hanging heavier than the rest.

“Why me?”

Before Allura had a chance to respond, Iverson cut in.

“We still don’t know if it is you.”

“Which is why we need to get to the blue lion _now_ and find out!”

“We’re not going to let you wonder Earth on a hunt for something you alone claim exists!”

“Then they won’t be alone,” interjected Colonel Smith. “We’ll send in our troops with theirs, and if nothing comes up they’ll be able to leave McClain out of the rest of their stay here.”

Iverson looked like he was ready to argue, but closed his mouth at a look from the colonel. He glanced over at Lance, and he was taken back by the amount of worry in his eyes. Before he could think on that further, Princess Allura placed her hand on his arm.

“How would you like to meet the rest of the team?”

-

So it went something like this.

Allura dropped her off with a hulking alien whose name was Hunk, was the yellow paladin, and came from a planet named Balmera.

He was also hilarious, had a girlfriend he was over the moon for—does that expression still work in space? —, was a genius engineer, and literally radiated warmth.

(Okay, not literally, but honestly his smile could definitely melt the artic.)

Hunk then introduced him to Pidge, who he’d honestly initially overlooked (and he means literally overlooked) because they had been in the hangar where the giant robot lions were practically staring him down. However, they grabbed his attention pretty fast with a comment about him fainting.

Pidge was a tiny little thing from the planet Olkari who really shouldn’t have so much snark in their tiny body. Like that couldn’t be healthy.

They were apparently also a genius, having come up with a cloaking device that had masked the entire castle while it entered the Earth’s atmosphere and kept it cloaked until just before it landed. Sure, it malfunctioned at that point, but Hunk pointed out that if it hadn’t been for that, they wouldn’t had met Lance.

That had caused a smile from the both Pidge and Lance.

He was then led to the kitchen, where he met Coran, the other Altean on board, and Shiro who was Galra. And like Allura had spoken pretty strongly against them, but if she trusted Shiro then who was Lance to assume anything.

Coran was…something. He was absolutely enthusiastic to meet Lance, but it was a bit difficult to understand his stories when half the words he said didn’t even sound like noises anyone should be able to make. But he was undeniably caring, offering Lance a green goo substance he’d apparently been working on the whole afternoon.

Shiro was much more reserved than Coran, but that really wasn’t saying much considering. He was apparently the black paladin, and therefore the leader of Voltron. Not that Lance knew why that was, or why they even called themselves Voltron. But the guy definitely gave off leader vibes. Plus, he looked like he could bench press Lance in his sleep, and he was so on board with that.

Then the kitchen door opened, and Lance turned to see someone who looked completely human. Save for the—

“Ears!”

“Who are you?”

Okay and maybe ‘ears’ wasn’t the best thing to say when first meeting someone, but it had been a long day. Days. Ugh, he still didn’t know how long he’d been out for.

“Keith,” Shiro spoke. “This is Lance. Lance, this is Keith. He’s our red paladin.”

And Lance would’ve responded, probably greeted Keith properly, but he was too busy staring.

Okay, and now that he had a longer look, there were a few minor things that made him look less human. Like his elbows looked like they were had splotches of purple, and Lance swore that he’d seen fangs when Keith had talked. But other than that, he seemed very human.

He even had a mullet, and Lance desperately hoped that tragedy of a hairstyle hadn’t been popular on any other planet.

“Why is he here?”

And yeah that caused Lance to reel back as if he’d been hit.

As if that hadn’t been the question lingering in the back of his mind since this whole situation started.

“He’s the guy,” Hunk excitedly explained. “The one who might be our blue paladin.”

“Oh, you’re the one who fainted when Red looked at you.”

Okay, was everyone going to be bringing that up?

“Lance, my name is Lance,” he bit out, eyes narrowing. “We were literally just introduced.”

Keith shrugged, though he maintained his gaze on Lance. It made him feel itchy, like they guy was trying to see right through him. Which, considering he was alien, he could totally be doing.

“So,” Lance continued, trying to sound as uninterested as guy on a space RV surrounded by aliens could. “Where are you from?”

“What do you mean?”

What did he mean what did Lance mean?

“I mean where are you from?” Lance replied slowly, eyebrows raised. “I’m not exactly knowledgeable about the whole life on other planets thing, so I’m trying to get a start with everyone on the team. So far, I’ve got Balmara, Olatari, Altea, and Galra. What about you?”

At his clarification, Keith’s ears flattened against his head, and if the guy hadn’t been so rude since he’d come in, Lance might’ve considered that adorable.

“Keith is also Galra,” Shiro stepped in, and Lance’s eyebrows furrowed. He glanced back and forth between the two. Yeah okay, the ears and fangs were almost identical, and that would explain the hints of purple on Keith, but did Galras come in shades from giant purple cats to almost human.

Holy shit, what if they were on Earth! Forget the lizard people, Galra were the ones who were undercover.

“Keep thinking that hard and you’ll overwork your brain,” Keith growled, and yes maybe it was a bit rude of Lance to stare, but give a guy a break! “I’m only part-Galra.”

“Then what’s the other part?”

At the question, Keith crossed his arms, his eyes finally looking away from Lance to stare at the wall.

“That is the question!” Coran piped in, seemingly unaware of the tension in the room. “No one seems to know, seeing as the identity of his father is a mystery. We’ve tried finding out through our scanners, but it’s some being that neither Alteans nor any of us are familiar with!”

The silence following felt heavy.

Lance figured it was two main reasons.

One, he had kinda been a dick. He hadn’t known Keith’s whole unknown background thing, though! It wasn’t like he was trying to purposefully make the guy feel exposed or bad about himself. But he had been that one insisting on knowing. And he couldn’t help the guilt weighing on him at the sight of Keith closed in on himself.

And, second—and he was sure everyone else was thinking this—there was one species that none of them had known of till earlier. One, who evidence was showed, matched with the other half of Keith’s looks. And the very same once that Lance was.

“How do we even know he’s the blue paladin?”

And that’s a second point for Keith at picking at Lance’s insecurity.

But he was right. Lance felt like this had all been a dream since he’d woken up, but what if it wasn’t true. They were basing this all off him passing out when one of lions had looked at him, but was that really enough? Allura had insisted that it signified a potential bond, but Lance couldn’t be sure that it hadn’t been the shock of it all. And what would happen if he wasn’t? He’d just been introduced to all these amazing beings, and he was supposed to just shove off if he wasn’t the chosen one?

A muffled sound came from the helmet on the table. Shiro swiftly picked it up, speaking quickly into it. He looked up with a wry smile on his face.

“Looks like we’re about to find out.”

-

It had been decided that Lance would be riding with the colonel and Iverson to the location of the Blue Lion. Apparently, they hadn’t trusted the team with him, which made him feel vaguely touched, but mostly confused.

Because hadn’t they just let him spend the past couple hours with them?

But riding through the dessert with both the highest-ranking officer he’d ever been face-to-face with and his own commander to his left did make Lance feel small. So, he huddled in on himself, and looked out the window at the dust flying past them.

He thought he saw a rundown shack in the distance, but blinked and it was gone.

Must’ve been a mirage.

When he finally felt them slowing down, he looked out the windshield to see they had arrived at a cave.

“Where’s the lion?”

And maybe some more tact could’ve been used, considering how small these men made him feel, but he was tired, confused, and ready to get this over with.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Iverson growled. “I bet this whole thing was a trick, and trap to get us comfortable and—”

“Why don’t we exit the vehicle and find that out for ourselves.”

At the colonel’s words, Lance practically jumped out the truck, glad to be able to stretch his legs and even more glad to be out of that tension filled space. He turned around, avoiding the looks of the few soldiers who’d been trailing them in their own vehicles and landing his gaze on the two lions that were just landing.

“You’ve got some explaining to do!”

Lance flinched at the sound of Iverson yelling, and widened his eyes at Shiro’s metal arm glowing as he followed Princess Allura off the Black Lion. Iverson must’ve noticed it too, because he practically fell backwards trying to reverse from the duo.

“The coordinates don’t seem to lead us to any lion,” Colonel Smith spoke, voice a little too sure.

“Yeah, not quite,” piped up Pidge as they along with Keith caught up to the rest of them once exiting the Green Lion. “We simply can’t make it any further on vehicle. The rest will be by foot.”

Without waiting for a response, Pidge made their way into the cave with the rest of team Voltron following behind them. Lance moved to follow, and then the colonel and Iverson were stepping in front of him, trailing closely behind the crew. Lance rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth quiet and his place behind the two—letting out a breath of relief when he’d heard Colonel Smith call out to the other soldier to stay put.

Once in the cave, Lance was startled by the markings on the wall. They didn’t look familiar, but they drew him in somehow. He inspected them closely, vaguely taking in the words of the others.

“These marking are Altean. I never thought I’d see markings like these in person again…”

“I know princess, but do they reveal anything to you?”

“I’m afraid not. They seem to only tell the story of Voltron, not the location of the blue lion.”

“Cadet put your hand down!”

But before Iverson could reach down and snatch Lance’s wrist away, he was already pressing his fingers against one of the more complex looking signals.

Suddenly the symbols in the cave started glowing, and there was a split second where everyone’s heads snapped to Lance before the floor was collapsing under them.

And maybe the shriek Lance made at the loss of ground wasn’t the coolest moment for him, but he was pretty sure no one could distinguish it between everyone else’s shouts so that was a plus.

Then a small body of water was rushing to meet them, and how many concussions was Lance gonna get this week? Because at this rate it seemed like he was going to break some sort of record.

Groaning, Lance sat up from the large puddle and opened his eyes. Only for his jaw to open with them.

Sitting before them was a lion like the others, but this one blue.

The Blue Lion.

And if he’d felt like the others had been watching him earlier it was nothing compared to this. This lion was practically gazing into his soul, and Lance swore its gaze followed him as he stood up and made a few tentative steps toward it.

“Holy shit,” he whispered, because they had been right. There was a giant robot lion on Earth.

And they could be right about him.

He heard the Colonel speaking quietly, and turned to look at him as he put some sort of device down and cursed under his breath.

“We’re getting no signal down here, radio or otherwise,” he spoke, breaking the trance that had overcome everyone at the sight of the blue lion. “We shouldn’t proceed further until our communications is back up.”

“Lance has every right to ‘proceed further’” Pidge responded, staring the colonel down. “This could change everything!”

The colonel opened his mouth to speak, but then every eye on team Voltron turned to glare at him. Lance looked on in shocked as they seemed to dare Colonel Smith to deny him this.

He looked to Iverson, but the commander was staring at Lance like he’d never seen him before. Which would be great, except there was a big chance that this wasn’t meant for him and he was going to look like an idiot.

Commander Smith, also met his gaze, but his eyes held much less wander. There was a command in his stare, one he’d learn to recognize early in his days at the Garrison.

_Do not engage._

But Lance couldn’t resist the pull towards the lion, even if he wanted to.

And he didn’t even want to.

Slowly walking toward the lion, Lance paused when he reached the field around it. He glanced back at Princess Allura about what to do about it, but she just smiled encouragingly.

Which was a beautiful sight, but not helpful in the slightest.

“What, do I just knock?”

And before anyone could reply, but not before he heard some confused sounds, Lance lifted his fist and knocked on the force field. He gasped, followed by many others, as it dissolved into light and the lion moved so that it was lying down with its mouth open.

He took two steps—

“McClain, don’t take any steps further, this is you colonel speaking—”

And without knowing why, he was sprinting into the mouth of the lion. The others might’ve started calling out after him, but he ignored them in favor of following the force that was pulling at his chest. He ran until he found himself in a pilot pit, and collapsed against the seat.

_Holy shit._

_Holy fucking shit._

He rested his hands on his controls, trying to calm his heart and was suddenly assaulted with images and thoughts that were not his own. He saw his lion soaring, surrounded by the others coming to form a giant awesome looking robot.

He reeled back into his seat, chest heaving, because what the hell had that been?

He was then met not with images but a sound, these less intense and much gentler. They felt cool, like a dip in the pool on a hot day. And as these feelings were sent to him, he got the messages. It was his lion talking to him.

It was his lion _talking_ to him.

Okay. That’s cool. No stress. Just a telepathic lion, happens every day.

He was jerked from his internal shrieking by the sound of shots ringing out. He looked up at Blue, thinking maybe she (he was confident she was she) was trying to tell him something, but at the sounds of shouts from outside the lion, he looked out his lion’s windshield and felt the blood drain from his face.

Colonel Smith had a gun aimed up, but that apparently did nothing to calm down the team. They all had their weapons out—where had the even been _carrying­_ them—and pointed at the colonel. The princess had no weapon, but her steel gaze seemed to do enough while Iverson stood with wide eyes, looking between the colonel and the princess.

Lance immediately shot out of his seat, heart racing.

What the fuck was going on? Why did this day need to get more and more complicated?

Suddenly his mind was filled with images of the day, and how it all had led to Lance and Blue finally meeting. Calming down a bit, Lance tried sending a wave of thanks to Blue as he rushed out his lion, hoping he was doing it right. The warm feeling that followed his thanks was something that Lance could definitely get used to.

“—the meaning of this?”

Lance’s attention snapped to the scene in front of him at the sound of Allura’s voice, and he felt himself flinch. She sounded angry in a way that chilled Lance to the bone.

However, none of them seemed to notice Lance exit his lion, attention focused on each other and their weapons.

“My apologies princess,” Colonel Smith responded. “But this has gone on farther than we had intended. I’m going to need you and your team to come with me to talk some things out, while we keep this lion under our safe keeping.”

“That was not the deal,” Pidge stated lowly.

“Well to be honest, we didn’t really think there would be a lion here, let alone that McClain would be the one to pilot it,” was everyone at the Garrison just a giant asshole? “Now that we know there really is a weapon of such capabilities on Earth, we’re going to have to go back on our agreement.”

“And your plan for this,” Shiro asked, moving his body slowing toward the princess.

In response, the colonel aimed his weapon at the princess.

Lance wasn’t sure if the sharp inhale had come from someone else, or him.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Keith growled. “You’re painfully outnumbered.”

The colonel merely shrugged, and Lance felt bile rising in his throat. Because this was starting to look like something he’d studied in one of his military tactics classes.

“There are plenty of other officers ready to take my place if I lose my life serving my country,” he replied steadily before narrowing his eyes. “How many Princesses of Altea do _you_ have?”

At that, Shiro’s arm glowed, the gun clicked, and Lance knew he had to do something.

“Stop!”

Okay so maybe his something wasn’t all that much, but it was effective. Everyone jumped, turning to look at him—or technically him and Blue.

“Colonel,” he started, deciding to focus on the one who had started all this anyway. “You and I both know that you have this place surrounded. There’s no reason to threaten anyone’s life.”

Colonel Smith bristled, narrowing his eyes at Lance, but before he could speak, someone else interrupted.

“You knew about this?” Keith asked, and though he sounded angry, he also sounded hurt in a way Lance couldn’t explain. But he couldn’t have his future team thinking bad of him either way.

“Nope, I’m as surprised as you all are,” he replied, arms up in a placating matter. Or at least he hoped it was. “But, I did get an A in my Joint Targeting and Strategy class, and according to that, this is all a ploy to give the military more time to surround the Colonel’s location.”

“You’re speaking out of turn and of things you don’t understand cadet,” the colonel growled, and Lance was so glad he’d paid attention in that class because it seemed he was right. “There are things you can’t learn in a classroom, so shut your mouth. In case you haven’t realized, these are aliens. And ‘special’ or not, you’re a cadet of the Garrison.”

“He is also a paladin of Voltron, and a well-chosen one,” Allura interrupted. “You will let us go, give us the Blue Lion, and leave us be.”

The colonel laughed, but did lower his gun.

“If you think I’m the only obstacle stopping you from getting what you want, you clearly had no clue what you were getting into to.”

Lance felt his stomach sink at his words, but when he glanced back at everyone else, they were already looking at him. His eyes widened at their gazes, and then even more so when he read the pride, relief, and joy in them. Even Keith the asshole.

The team was proud of him. _His_ team was proud of him.

-

Turned out Lance had been right.

When they had left the cave, with the Blue Lion still in it and Lance’s chest heavy at the thought of her all alone, they had been surrounded by almost 10 times the amount of people then had been there before.

What he hadn’t quite been expecting was for the goddamn president to be there too.

Or for someone to pull him away as soon as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

“Son, you’re going to have to come with me.”

He was then being dragged away the team and towards a dark car. He immediately started fighting back, making up for what he lacked in skill with the length of his arms.

He saw the hand go up before he felt the blow to his head.

He also heard his name being called out, though the voices were hard to distinguish. There was the worried voice of Iverson, what he was pretty sure was the accented voice of Princess Allura, and one more angry voice that was familiar but he couldn’t quite place.

Then there was an impact on his head, and it all went black.

-

When Lance woke up again (and he was so sick of this whole being knocked out business), he was surrounded by Allura, Shiro, and surprisingly Iverson. They all looked relieved and happy to see him, but their faces did harden when he asked what he’d missed.

Apparently, the Garrison had no intention of letting the team leave with the Blue Lion if they did really find it. Which they had. And now them, and the whole government wow, were claiming that since it was found on their soil, it belonged to them now. Allura had pleaded the case, citing the Galra, but they said if what was she said were true than they’d need all the protection they could get. Specifically, the blue lion.

Also, the government had quite a few questions about how they’d entered the planet completely undetectable save the last few feet and how they’d even found Earth in the first place. All that had left the team feeling drained and washed out, not that Lance could blame them.

After filling him in, they informed him that he wouldn’t be able leave the room for a while—per order of the Garrison—but that they’d all take turns keeping him company.

He was very appreciative, and after a restful nap found none other than Keith sitting by his bedside.

“What time is it,” he groaned, grogginess clinging onto him as he turned in the bed.

“Don’t know, but you’ve been out long enough to warrant a meal.”

And it did sound like a command coming from Keith, but Lance was too hungry to care about it. Taking the tray of food from his hands, he started scarfing it down, ignoring Keith’s scrunched nose.

“Any updates?”

“Uh, not really?” Keith said, watching Lance in a gaze that looked both mesmerized and disgusted. He was a complex person like that. “It’s hard to make negotiations when the people you’re talking to don’t really believe what you’re saying.”

“I feel like I’d believe anything at this point,” Lance scoffed around the food in his mouth. “What was so ‘unbelievable’ for them?”

“That when the lions combine they form a giant robot called Voltron with the capabilities of taking down entire space fleets.”

At Keith’s deadpan, Lance started choking. Keith’s eyes widened and he tried hitting the back of Lance’s back to help, but it was with enough force that Lance thought his eyes were about to launch from his skull. Waving him off, he coughed around the food, before meeting Keith’s eyes with his watery gaze.

“Ah,” he replied hoarsely once his coughing stopped. That was probably on him for not asking what Voltron was when they’d first mentioned it. But that did explain the weird image his lion had given him when they first met.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be pretty remarkable,” Keith continued hesitantly, eyes still carefully watching Lance. “Even though Allura and Coran are the only one’s who’ve actually seen it since we haven’t had the blue lion…”

Keith trailed off, and Lance knew what he was thinking. With the way the trip was going, they still might not have the lion. And even though it wasn’t his fault, he still felt guilt swirling in his gut. It was his government and school that were keeping it from them. Looking down at his lap, he played with the edges of the blanket, feeling helpless.

“I wish there was something I could do to help.”

“Come with us.”

“What?”

Lance’s head snapped toward Keith’s, but the boy was steadfastly avoiding his gaze.

“I said come with us.”

“Yeah I got that, but come with you where?”

“What do you mean where? To space obviously!”

If Lance hadn’t already finished his food, he would’ve started choking again.

But now that he thought about it, this probably shouldn’t have surprised him as much. They’d talked about liberating planets, saving lives, and fighting an empire. Lance should’ve figured that wouldn’t have been able to be done from the comfort of his dorm.

But the idea of leaving with them seemed overwhelming. Because they were they were talking didn’t seem like they were talking about leaving for a few months. Taking down an empire on Earth took years, and this was an empire that spanned through space. How long was that going to take?

His family immediately came to his mind, and he felt himself pale. Yes, he was at the Garrison to become a fighter pilot and that meant missions out in space, but he thought he had years. He thought he had _time_. But now all he could think was all the missed birthdays and graduations and weddings he wouldn’t be here for if he left right then.

“How?”

Keith gave him a withering look, but his question was well deserved. Was there a plan to this at all?

“I don’t know how I can make ‘Come with us’ any clearer.”

“But what about the Blue Lion?” Lance snapped, getting frustrated with Keith’s bored looks. “I’m pretty sure that was the whole reason you came here.”

“It’s simple, you just take it.”

“You want me to just take it!”

“I mean, it won’t respond to anyone but you anyway so there’s no harm.”

“No harm! The government is under the impression that it belongs to them, so stealing it from them would make me a wanted criminal!”

“Well, they’re wrong it doesn’t belong to them—so it’s not like you’re really doing anything wrong!”

“Okay?! I still live here! How am I ever supposed to come home if the government would probably shoot me on sight if they saw me again?”

“You won’t have a home if you don’t do anything, because the Galra will find it, kill it, and destroy it all.”

Lance flinched back at the words, stung as if they’d been lashed against his chest. He hadn’t realized how loud they’d gotten in their fighting until the silence that followed hung heavy over them.

“When I mentioned the idea to Allura, she hadn’t reacted well either.”

Lance chanced a look back at Keith. His arms were crossed, and he was staring at the floor, and _holy shit_ his ears were pressed against his head again. He’d forgotten they could do that.

“It’s just, you asked what you could do and…” Keith continued, waving his hand vaguely. “It just feels really frustrating right now. This wasn’t supposed to be this hard. Or take this long.”

“How long have you been looking for the blue lion anyway?”

“It feels like ages,” Keith confessed. “I stumbled on the Red Lion by accident and that’s how we all ended up here.”

“How do you stumble on a giant robot lion?”

“It’s a long story you probably don’t want to—”

“Dude I love long stories, lay it on me.”

Keith stared at him a moment more before he delved into the story of how the team had come to be.

How he’d been part of a group called the Blade of Marmorra alongside Shiro before the black paladin had been captured by the Galra. About how he’d gone against the orders of the Blade to attempt a rescue mission. How on that mission he’d found Hunk and Pidge, prisoners on the ship who helped him find and rescue Shiro once he’d released them. How he had felt a pull while they’d been escaping, and against the protests of the others, followed it until he was face to face with the Red Lion. How he’d gone in without hesitation and trusted it as it guided him towards a wormhole that led him to Arus and the castle where Allura and Coran had been in stasis. How that’d lead to them finding the other lions and beginning their fight against the Galra.

“That sounds,” and wow, why did he sound breathless? “Amazing. Like the stuff dreams wished they could be.”

Keith laughed, and then his smile faded as his eye bore into Lance’s. He stared at him for a long time, and seemed to be trying to say something.

“I-I’m not sure—there’s not really a way—”

“You’re gonna say you look human, right?” Lance blurted out because this had been on the back of his mind since he’d seen the boy. “Because I completely agree, but also have no clue as to why.”

Keith flushed, and it was a much better look on his face then when it was an angry flush.

“Well, yeah,” he admitted. “But I don’t really want to get my hopes up either. When we met Allura and Coran, I thought maybe…But the tests they ran on me to check didn’t show any Altean blood.”

Lance nodded sympathetically. It was one thing not to know who your dad was. He and his older siblings could relate. It must have been even worse to not only not who he was but to not even know what species he was.

“I wouldn’t mind undergoing those test,” Lance said slowly, hoping his tone didn’t come of as pitying. “That way you could know for sure and not feel like pulling your mullet out over it.”

Keith looked at him, eyes wide and Lance fidgeted under his stare. It wasn’t like it was a big deal. He was just doing some basic alien DNA testing. Totally normal.

Before Lance could start rambling, which he knew he was about to do, the door opened and Allura popped her head in.

“It’s time to go.”

-

So, they had come to an agreement. Well, less of an agreement and more of a forced cooperation.

The blue lion would stay on Earth, and Lance with it. Team Voltron would leave for the moment, and come back periodically to do drills to form Voltron and whenever the Blue Lion was needed. Lance would train with the Blue Lion on Earth.

Anytime the team would need to come back to Earth, they would need to contact the Garrison first. There was to be absolutely no contact between Lance and the rest of the team in the meantime.

The team left unwillingly, but promised to be back—not only for the blue lion, but for Lance too. And for knowing them for less than a week, Lance’s heart felt ridiculously heavy at them leaving.

No one outside of the Garrison soldiers and top government officials were told they had ever been on Earth.

-

If Iverson disapproved of the way Lance flew the flight simulator, he must’ve absolutely loathed the way Lance flew his lion.

Because Lance was usually pretty risky when he flew, but that was nothing compared to how he was acting with Blue. There was something distinctly different flying blue, who not only knew which crazy maneuver he was going to try with her, but encouraged it.

God, he was probably going to give Iverson a stroke.

Speak of the devil.

“McClain! McClain if you don’t bring that machine down this instant—!”

Lance sighed. Iverson’s voice may be cracking, Blue’s super advanced tech messing with the frequency of the basic Earth headset they’d given, but Lance could tell if he didn’t go down soon he’d be given hell to pay.

Landing his lion, he rested against his seat, exhilarated and out of breath. He probably had a fair bit of time before anyone got agitated of him just sitting in his lion. Using that to his advantage, he pulled out a small device from his pocket.

Before team Voltron had left, there was something they’d managed to give Lance. And something he’d given them himself.

Right before they departed, the team had said their goodbyes to Lance. And while it had been a very bittersweet affair (like super heavy on the bitter), they’d managed to slip him a small gadget. They wouldn’t tell him what it was, but they’d insisted that he only pull it out in private.

Lance had shrugged. Of all the things they’d told him during their stay, that had been the least strange.

After he was sure the device was safely tucked away in the pocket of his jacket, he had proceeded to pull a few strands of hair out of his head. The team looked at him in bewilderment, but he quickly explained himself.

“Relax, it’s not so you can clone me,” he joked before his eyes narrowed. “Can you clone me?”

Coran made a noncommittal sound accompanied with an ‘eh’ gesture of his hand before Allura elbowed him.

Reassuring.

“Anyway,” he continued with a wary look. “This is for Keith. Well—I mean not _for_ Keith but so he can find out if he’s human or not. Like, if that’s how it works. I don’t know how your alien tech works, but on Earth it’s a pretty good way of like finding out who the father is. Not that this is the same as that. This is just my best idea on limited time and—”

“Lance,” Shiro interrupted, looking very grateful. “Thank you. This’ll be great.”

Relieved his hair worked and that he’d been interrupted at his rambling, he gave his final goodbyes to the team and they were on their way.

And while he’d managed to keep the small contraption hidden, now that he was all alone and completely out of sight of any eyes of the Garrison or government, he couldn’t fight the temptation to finally take a look at it.

Looking at it closely now, he didn’t think it looked very impressive. It was white, round, and flat, a very minimal structure with a blue circle at its center. In the back of his mind, Lance acknowledge it reminded him of the aesthetic of the Space RV—or just castle as everyone else referred to it as—but other than that he couldn’t figure out why they’d given it to him.

Twirling it through his fingers, Lance got distracted by his thoughts, and the device slipped through his fingers. Jerking, his hand shot out to grab it, thumb landing cleanly on the blue circle.

Suddenly, a bright blue holoscreen was projected from device. Lance nearly dropped it again, but managed to maintain his grip due to what was on the screen.

Standing and looking tensed for a fight was the whole team. Lance’s jaw dropped for a few moments before he broke out into a grin. When they team realized who they were looking at, they all smiled back, eagerly making their way closer.

“Looks like the device works, princess,” Shiro said proudly. “We weren’t sure if Earth would be too far away for us to get a signal but guess not.”

“Lance!” Hunk exclaimed. “You figured it out!”

“Took you long enough,” Keith added with a smirk, relaxing his stance.

“Hey, it’s not my fault they’ve been watching my every move since you all left!”

At that, the team looked away from the screen with varying amounts of guilt, and Lance frowned at that. But it’s not like what he said wasn’t true.

Ever since Voltron and the castle left, he’d been watched at every moment by the Garrison. In an effort to make everything go back to normal they’d let Lance continue his classes as normal. With all the other cadets on lockdown during the Voltron visit, the Garrison had written the lockdown off as precaution to a possible international threat. And though none of the cadets really believed that, none of their theories were as wild as alien visit.

It sucked not being able to talk to anyone about this, but it sucked even more to be watched by everyone who did know about it—as if they expected him to launch into space at will. He’d also had to go through a ton of questioning, from both the Garrison and the government, about everything he’d been told by Voltron. He’d obviously made it as brief as possible, citing his _multiple_ concussions as why he couldn’t recall much.

However, they’d decided to finally let Lance fly his lion. It’s location was deep into the middle of nowhere enough that they didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing the machine. Which is how Lance finally had enough time to himself, for the first time in weeks.

“Sorry about all the trouble this has caused you,” Allura spoke up, looking especially contrite. “We knew Earth wasn’t familiar with life on other planets and that it was delicate mission and we went forth anyway.”

“No no no, theres nothing to be sorry for!” Lance exclaimed, causing wide eyed looks from them all. “You’re not in the wrong in this situation. It’s…difficult yeah, but there was no way aliens coming to Earth wasn’t going to be. Besides, better you than the Galra, right?”

Allura beamed at him, and Lance swore he got five years of life back.

“But uh I gotta admit I’m confused,” Lance said, looking between the device in his hand and the screen it projected. “What exactly is this thing?”

“It’s more often than not a distress beacon,” Pidge piped up. “We usually give it planets we liberate so they can contact us if they need help. But in your case, it’s like a communicator. Just press the blue button and you’ll be able to talk to us like this.”

“So this means we’re free to talk to each other!” Hunk said, and man Lance had really missed the dude

“Which works because us getting to know each other is both good for the team dynamic and for all of us in general,” Shiro added. “We really wish we could’ve had more time to get to know you Lance.”

And there was no way in hell he was about to cry in front of the coolest group of individuals he’d ever met, but damned was he close to doing it.

“So where is this location that no one can see you in?” Pidge asked.

“I’m in the blue lion.”

As soon as he said this, his eyes met Keith’s. Suddenly, their last conversation played in his head. How he could simply leave on his lion and never look back. And though he’d been adamantly against it last time they’d talked, there was something more tempting about the idea now that he was in his lion. Now that it would only take a moment to charge into space and towards Voltron.

“That’s good that they’re letting you practice,” Keith spoke up, eyes never leaving Lance’s. “You’ve got a lot of catching up to do if you plan on training with us when we come back.”

Lance’s eyes widened before he gave a half smile to Keith.

Keith was right, they were coming back. And while it may totally suck to know he could be helping in a larger way, this was for the best. For right now. Because once team Voltron came back, he planned on out piloting all of them, especially Keith.

Lance made sure to tell him that.

**Author's Note:**

> why is this so many words?
> 
> ~no self control~
> 
> aight this will most likely be like parts, and the next part is coming up soon???? honestly probably not too soon, but like definitely not never. it’s a coming, its just might take a minute


End file.
